Introducing the Citrus and Mint Halloween clip art and digital papers! I always say this, but THIS is my most favorite kit. Fall is my favorite season and Halloween is a fun holiday to decorate! I tried to go a little retro again with my colors and style, especially with my favorite pieces-the girl in the kitty costume and the poison bottle. Hopefully now you have a great collection to pull from when designing your awesome Halloween party invitations this year, or even decorating your house! Buy them separately or save by buying the bundle in the stores either HERE (etsy) or HERE (creative market).

Summertime has arrived in North Florida! I've learned now that I will only experience two seasons here--summer and winter (it does get below freezing). So with our increasingly frequent trips to the beach and pool, I have summer on my mind. Summer Treats, Summer Fun, and Summer Digital Papers are all now available individually or as a discounted bundle in the shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CitrusandMint

This was me yesterday. After some surprisingly soothing back rubs from my four year old, I feel asleep on the playroom floor for who knows how long. 20 minutes? An hour? Probably not the best mom move, but it did give me energy to finish a new clip art set! Handmade with Love is now available in the shop. It's definitely one of my most favorite kits that I've created!﻿ Click on the kit to go to the shop or click on the clip art shop in the sidebar. Have a marvelous weekend!

It's finally my favorite season of the year! Oh wait, I live in never-ending-summer Florida now. Drats. Well I can still appreciate what everyone else will experience this fall and live vicariously through all of you. I will also still put on my maroon skinny jeans and leather riding boots and just sweat it out. Maybe not this month, maybe in October....There are three new sets in the shop! One with wreaths and flower clusters all ready for you to use. Another set includes matching papers and the last set is all the individual flowers and foliage (plus some extras) so that you can create your own. The last set also includes the vector EPS file so you can change the colors and sizes if you wish. Or you can bundle and save by getting all three together. Find all sets here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CitrusandMint

Ok, ok. If you've been with me from the beginning--like Elle Designs beginning--then you know that technically it is not Citrus and Mint's 2nd birthday or even the store's birthday or even my birthday (mine's in June if you really want to know). But this month marks two years since I started designing!!! And I want to celebrate! This week's celebrations include a sale in the store (click HERE), a birthday clip art freebie, a Pixel Scrapper blog train freebie, and a GIVEAWAY! That's right! Let the party begin. (sale actually starts today a little early)

shop sale.

This is the annual Citrus and Mint sale. Four days only. Don't miss out!

freebies.

Sign up HERE for the newsletter to get this freebie. See THIS post for the Pixel Scrapper blog train freebie.

giveaway.

Win a free kit from my store! No complicated re-shares or ridiculous rules. Just a simple choose, comment, and WIN!Rules:1. Visit the shop HERE.2. Pick out your favorite kit.3. Leave a comment on this post before February 5, 2014 at 12:00 AM EST letting me know which kit you would like (bundles are excluded). Make sure that you include your email address so that I have a way to contact you if you win.4. I will randomly select TWO lucky winners and post the results by February 6, 2014. Winners will have one week (until February 13, 2014) to claim their prize, otherwise I will randomly choose again.

I once taught a Sunday School lesson on Gratitude and came across a talk by Bonnie Parkin. In it she described how each night before family prayer, her family would list off blessings they received that day and add them to their "blessings basket". I decided to start a similar tradition in our family (it was only my husband and I then) where each Sunday we wrote down 10 blessings we had received that week. Some weeks it was really hard to find 10, and other weeks we had more like 20. It was interesting how our perspective on life changed. Even some bad things that happened turned out to be blessings in our journal because things could have been worse, or so and so helped us, etc. Now 5 years later, we are still keeping it up. I figure that by now we have recorded over 2,600 blessings!!! [. . .]

Time for another Pixel Scrapper blog train! (Find the rest of the blog train HERE) I've been wanting to do a nautical type kit for a while, so this gave me the perfect opportunity to get it done (it also helped that our internet didn't work for a week so I spent the baby nursing hours drawing). Plus we just moved to the beach in Florida so I already have tons of beach photos to scrap! If you are new to Citrus and Mint, check out the freebies page for all of the other freebies available for download (there are quite a few now plus a new one from July that is one of my personal favorites!) [. . .]

It's official! I finally got around to figuring out Etsy and opening up a shop. I struggled with this decision because I want to keep designing fun, and all of the marketing and pressure involved with selling my designs seemed like it would take all the fun out of a hobby I enjoy. I also like to share what I create for free and wanted to keep it that way (I will still create free kits).

Then I got requests to use my designs for invitations and other small businesses. Through researching prices and policies for those requests, I found that there really was a void in the online market for digital hand drawn illustrations that small businesses could use commercially. Commercial use digital clip art is out there, but most of it uses perfect shapes and symmetry so they lack the "hand drawn" quality.

My shop will sell hand drawn digital illustrations for commercial use (there are some limitations, please read my TOU). You will notice that most of the clip art sets are from free kits I've designed. They are different in that the clip art is in flat .png format, meaning it has no texture or style added to it. Just the basic drawing. That way you can use it as a starting point like I did to make invitations, party favors, banners, birth announcements, or whatever your heart desires to sell--okay, not everything, read the TOU to be sure. People who only use my designs for personal use will be interested in the shop too as I will add clip art sets of illustrations that I won't make into free kits, like the London and Paris clip art sets pictured below. You can see everything that I have for sale under the shop tab on the left side menu.

So now there are two options for those wanting to use my designs commercially: 1) buy the clip art set from my Etsy store, or 2) purchase a license to use the freebie kit as is (read about this option HERE).

So head on over to the shop and check it out! Use the code GRANDOPEN25 by 6/16 and get 25% off your order! Also stop by the facebook page to pick up the new facebook freebie!

If there is something you would like to see in the shop, leave a comment with your suggestion!

new facebook freebie.

As you know, everything created by Citrus and Mint/Elle Designs is for personal use only (i.e. basically you can use them for free for projects that you do not receive money for). However, I have recently received emails requesting permission to use my designs to create commercial products. I have decided that I will offer limited commercial use licenses for approved small businesses. I have researched this thoroughly and am happy with the prices and terms of use. If you have any questions, please email me at citrusandmintdesigns@gmail.com.

single kit commercial use license

$20.00 per kit, never expires. This license must be purchased for EACH kit you want to use, even if you only use one paper or element from the kit.

12 month commercial use license

$100.00 for use of all kits created within a 12 month period. License would need to be renewed after the 12 months are up if use of the products was to be continued. (this covers both Elle Designs and Citrus and Mint kits) [. . .]